Wallingford Town Council approves $162 million budget

Published 7:29 pm, Sunday, May 14, 2017

WALLINGFORD >> The Town Council has adopted a municipal budget that is just $62,552 less than the one Mayor William Dickinson Jr. proposed a little over six week ago.

The council voted 6-3 to approve a $162.07 million budget, with Democrats Vinnie Testa and Jason Zandri, as well as Republican Craig Fishbein, voting against the budget. The approved budget represents a 2.36 percent increase in the tax rate, which will go from the current 27.89 mills to 28.55 when the new spending plan goes into effect on July 1.

Dickinson has until May 22 to veto the budget the council adopted, but he is not expected to do so,

Comptroller James Bowes said the average residential property owner will see their tax bill increase by $121 to $5,225.

Bowes said the slight reduction of the budget Dickinson proposed was “the result of reductions in certain fringe benefits.”

“Our consultants reported the employee benefit numbers a little later than they usually do, so they came in after the council already was working on the mayor’s budget,” he said. “The numbers came in a little lower than expected.”

Before the vote to approve the budget, Fishbein and Zandri had sought to lower the mill rate even further by making cuts to the municipal employees pension plan and health insurance. A majority of council members rejected that move, said Vincent Cervoni, the chairman of the governing body.

“We use high-quality experts to come up with what we have to contribute,” Cervoni said. “My feeling is that those are numbers that you don’t mess with.”